Sunday, May 31, 2009

Lisa Ling, eye cancer, and other things

Howdy, Blog.

You seem well. I feel as if you are really listening. Thank you, blog.

That said, I want to discuss my early morn stance on sociopathy. I have essay length or possibly book length amount of thoughts on this and so tailoring all that to a blog will be a challenge. Tweeting about sociopathy is OUT OF THE QUESTION.

So, here goes the question of evil has confounded thinkers for centuries. I don't even know if that's true but it sounds about right and I wrote it and whatever. So,what can I -- a poster child for postmodern post operative thought-- offer, when it comes to this ageold question?Hmmm, well I can only offer what I can offer and if you don't like it you can leave a comment, kay? I don't mean to get rude with you but your behavior is interfering with my blog post about sociopathy.

So, Sociapathy. Well, the only thing that seems specificially modern about the study of evil is the statistics of evil. TV shows, books, and movies about it have been around since I've been around but only somewhat recently have I heard this very questionable statistic: 4 % of people are sociopaths.

Now, and poll should inspire skepticism but this one just inspired a sense of weary wonderment. How do they quantify these polls? Who do they interview?How would they know this and are they at least a little bit right?

I don't know. Neither do you. It's impossible. But, it's still interesting and gives one even the slightest sense of momentary control. Ah, 96% are not and the odds are better ... that me and those i love will be spared... especially now that I've met two in one year.

Now, I'm 10 years short of being a half century old so when I say I don't think I've encountered sociopathy till now It's not like I'm some kindergartener. And, sociopathy and this supposed 4% of the population figure is very ... Strange.

Good and Evil have always been discussed, considered, debated etc, but only recently, as far as I know, did percentages enter the equation.

Mercifully, that number is far smaller than those who are considered to have conscience and yet that number is still way too large for much peace of mind.

In the last year I've had people do very bad things to me but only two of them could be designated as sociopaths. Not because the others aren't. They very well might be , but in the absence of enough information, I'll stick with these two and try to explain why no other choice exists than to come to this conclusion.

It all comes down to the "how do you sleep at night" dillema. some do things that should destroy their waking hours and destroy the prospect of sweet dreams, and some of them must expel the deed from their "conscience." or not sleep at night and not have any good days as a result. And, in this case no case studies have ever been released that have shown that this is anything but a black and white situation. Not simple minded to see that no gray can exist to qualify for that 4%. Which reminds me of how George Bush was so criticized for using absolutist langauge when talking about Terrorists and how I disagree with that criticism of him. Very few things would appear to lack gray area if or or when approached by an intelligent person. But, Goodness, I can see as having shades of gray while when using the word Evil I sense deep inside that no gray exists. To understand Evil you'd have to understand good and visa versa. Obviously. And, the word "Good" stands in tepid contrast to the word "Evil" Nowadays, especially, with the words awesome and amazing being used for gummy bears, the word "good" seems ... the new "Nice."In other words, not demonstrative of much. But, in this context and interposed with the word "Evil," you know what I'm saying. So, for our purposes let's agree to see the word good as the polar opposite of Evil and therefore an equally powerful concept.

Damn. I was going to discuss all this in a linear manner and now I'm thinking about fresh tangents. One tangent is making me think about the concepts of Success and failure and the other tangent is trying to steer me towards a discussion of solutions to problems I haven't even properly discussed. Thinking about Success and failure has nothing really to do with this Good and Evil business. In a roundabout way, sure, maybe, but the thing that is making me think about Success and failure is this news item with Lisa Ling. See, Lisa Ling is a very successful young girl who in my estimation always took herself and success... seriously. She was on The View and then on Travel shows (my dream job) and I figured she was a big Success. And, good for her. Really. Despite some recent sociopath's desires to paint me as "jealous." I happen to know that for some reason feeling jealous is a foreign feeling to me. So, no I felt no jealousy of Ms. Ling but now I can see that I vaguely envied what that kind of success would offer my mother and so It is possible that I was jealous that she was giving her mother Nachas(yidish for... Nachas). And, then yesterday on the news there is Ms. Ling and her sister is held captive in Korea and this flash of epiphany that success would open me up to worse fates. Or in other words, keep your head down, silently bemoan your obscurity but mabye it's better than fame, fortune, and those you love dying tragically, or even normally. And, of course remember how that girl at kickball told you about how her mother having eye cancer and you'd never heard of that but I guess that shit can happen And to risk that kind of horror? Would the absence of the constancy of your suffeing (sheild) open you up to worse suffering? How bad can things really get? Do you want to find out?

So, would I have "it all "just to then have my beloved sister jailed in Korea??? And what that would do to my mother???!! My sister only rarely goes up the block but ...

Is that why I'm/we're so stuck??? This will tie back in to sociopathy in my next post, I promise.

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